Leonardo da Vinci’s keyboard instrument with strings and a bow is called the viola organista.
Leonardo designed several versions of the instrument during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Pressing keys would select strings, while rotating wheels or a continuous bowing mechanism would make the strings sound. This combined the expressive qualities of bowed instruments with the organized control of a keyboard.
Unlike a conventional piano or harpsichord, the viola organista was intended to maintain sound while a bow remained in motion. Leonardo explored different arrangements in his notebooks, so surviving drawings represent a family of related concepts rather than one completely standardized instrument.
No confirmed original Renaissance viola organista survives. Modern makers have constructed playable versions from Leonardo’s plans, helping demonstrate how the mechanisms might have worked. The instrument is sometimes mistaken for a piano because of its keyboard, but its sound production depends on friction against strings, not hammers or plucking.